My Name Is Hermione
by Adam Douglas
Summary: What would happen if you were transported to the world of Harry Potter at the beginning of the series as one of the major character's, but not Harry. And were physically unable to tell anyone what the future held? Would you try to change anything?


**Author's Note:** Welcome to my first bit of fanfiction written in quite some time. This is meant to be a relatively serious attempt, not like my previous Harry Potter fanfiction which was merely me blowing off some steam at work. If you read that fanfic, you'll notice this one is quite a bit heavier in detail, and much longer as well.

I ask that you give this one a try before passing it up. The first chapter is pretty well devoid of anything you'd call Harry Potter because I needed a fairly elaborate setup in order to proceed with the story that I plan on telling. I hope you find it to your liking regardless. I spent some time on it trying to get it to read well without boring the crap out of you. It's pretty heavy with drawn out explanations for the setup, but you won't find hardly any of this crop up again until much later in the story. Well, hope you enjoy!

-**Adam**

**Summary: **what would happen if a reader of the Harry Potter series found themselves cast into the Potter universe as one of it's leading character's (**not Harry**) at the very beginning of the series? Provided this reader was unable to tell any of the character's of the future they knew of, would they try to change events? And if they did which ones would they try to change and what would be the consequences? What events would they be unable to change? This is a story that explores the concept of fate and destiny, and how things might change if you know what is going to happen. What will happen when because you've changed things you no longer know what will happen?

**Disclaimer:** I'm J.K. Rowlings and I've decided to stop writing the seventh book to work on fanfictions for my own book series, and if you believe that I have some ocean front property in Kansas you might be interested in.

* * *

**My Name is Hermione**

Book one: Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone

Chapter one: A reaper of Souls

by: Adam Douglas

Black inky nothingness stretched on seemingly into infinity, an oblivion so absolute it was as if the universe had winked out of existence. Earth, sun and stars had simply ceased to be in this total absence of light, and yet still the presence carried on as though floating on wings not of it's own. Dazed and only half aware of self, the bodiless entity continued moving, trapped in a semi-conscious state as though permanently rooted between dream and wake, compelled by nothing further than it's single desire to leave the darkness.

Memories flickered like thoughts on flames, unattainable and just as brief. Like water in the hand, nothing held substance. The presence could not hold on to itself, who it was, why it was here, and where here was, all nothing more than a buzz in the back of it's mind. The black held a choke-like grip, strangling slowly just as surely as it had choked out the light. Thoughts of life, hope, or dreams seemed alien. The suffocating pressing void was all there was— all there ever would be.

Still, the presence marched on.

After what seem like an eternity, something slightly less black appeared within the very edges of the presence's vision. As though a blur at the very end of possible sight, something almost insubstantial hung suspended. As it drew closer, it found itself drawn; the less black was now an actual dim light. For the first time in it's memory the presence felt something other than despair— hope. The light drew nearer at the presence's approach, and it began to take shape. It was rectangular with the height easily three times greater than it's width, the entire inside within the light just as black as the outside, like someone had drawn the rectangular light with a pen.

Finally the presence stood facing the light, the details clear. It was a door from which light was escaping at all edges. Sticking from out of the center of the door as if impaled, a giant clock key eerily loomed over the presence.

A small dinging sound echoed through the nothingness instantly catching the Presence's attention as something at it's feet glinted reflectively the light bleeding from the door. (_Hadn't it been bodiless moments earlier?_) It was a much smaller, normal sized clock key. Reaching down to retrieve the key, the presence noticed what appeared to be ahand. The sensation seemed familiar. It felt as though perhaps in another life it had been alive, away from this endless oblivion.

The normal sized clock key appeared to have once been ornate, but now the gleaming metal was dulled, the artistic etchings all but rubbed off. The only image that could remotely be made was that of a tree.

The presence reached up and inserted the key into a tiny lock that seemed to float just under the giant key.

—Nothing Happened—

Undeterred, the presence wiggled the key until finally managing to twist it several times as if to wind a clock. The larger key within the door began to slowly turn itself and the presence removed the smaller one.

After several rotations the light seeping from the edges intensified and the door began to open.

Bright white light greeted the black stained eyes of the presence, temporarily blinding it to what lay on the other side of the door. Still despite the pain of its eyes struggling to adjust, the presence stumbled forward. Anything was better than the abyss it had finally found refuge from.

As it walked, (_was this what walking felt like?_) the cool soft feel of something straw-like met the presence's feet. Keeping balance was a chore. Not only did the act of walking seem foreign, the lack of sight complicated matters. It had to be completely through the door, it thought. So it stopped and slowly lowered it's body to the soft floor and sat silently and still, till blearily its eyes began to focus and adjust.

At first it's body began to clear, before other details such as the green grass it sat upon, and the trees that covered the forest floor became more evident. It was in some sort of forested area it now saw. The light didn't seem as bright now, a canopy of tree branches and leaves obviously shielding the ground from the sky beyond. Dusty beams of errant light leaked out in torrents through the canopy illuminating small pockets of forest floor in bright colors of greens and browns.

The scene was mesmerizing. Like a secret garden, many different forms of beautifully colorful flowers reached from the ground or wrapped about trees adding a kaleidoscopic effect to the scene. Many of the flowers seemed strange and unknown to the presence's clearing mind, appearing in shapes and colors that it was certain even in other lives it had never seen. The door it had stepped out of it seemed, was now gone.

Finally, at the very edge of the clearing, a wooden thing that at first the presence had mistaken for a cliff wall, but now saw that it was the biggest tree it had ever seen. Stretching in either direction the tree seemed to go on forever and then shot up past the canopy into the sky beyond, and possibly past that.

This was by far the most exciting thing the presence had seen in this already amazing forest. It had to see more! Running as if it were the most normal thing in the world, the presence found itself at the base of one of the smaller trees. Determined to scale it so it might see past the obstructive canopy that hid what had to be the biggest tree in existence, the presence used it's arms and legs (now already taken for granted) to pull itself up the smaller tree.

The work was arduous and more straining than anything the presence could remember doing within the black, but the experience was invigorating. Hand over hand, foot over foot, it continued to pull itself up, feeling the smaller stray limbs pulling at it's back as though something hung from it.

Finally the ceiling-like canopy came within arms reach and it pushed itself through to finally lay eyes on the most beautiful sky it quite possibly had ever seen. Cloudless baby-blue seemed to go on forever in all directions, as though a cool blanket lay upon the planet protecting it from the black that must exist beyond it.

Then at last it's vision fell upon the magnificent tree that pierced the sky like a solitary lonely sentinel. It's branches at the very edge of the sky shooting out for miles in all directions, their color softened by the sheer distance from the earth's floor. It was the most amazing thing the presence was sure it had ever seen.

"Who are you?" Came a song-like voice from out of the silence. The presence startled by the intrusion into it's thoughts slipped from the tree and found itself falling quickly back to the forest floor. Smaller branches slapped and scrapped as they whipped by but just before impact the presence felt it's body's decent slow and then softly it was placed upon the ground. Shocked from the sudden fall the second the presence felt earth against it's feet it's body collapsed to the ground.

Standing at the base of the tree was the most startling girl the presence had ever seen. She was slender but not unhealthily so. Her skin— milk-white, which complimented the bright white hair that hung about her shoulders and down her back in a wild manner catching the light at every turn making it appear as though it was glowing like diamonds under a light. Her piercing pure and deep blue eyes set upon the presence in neither an unfriendly nor welcoming manner. She stood unflinching, her flowing white robe draped about her loosely dragging the ground, until after a moment she repeated herself in that same song-like voice.

"Who are you?"

The presence simply stared wide-eyed, transfixed by the girl. She was ethereal, like a goddess. Silence prevailed until finally the caw of a crow pierced the air and an inky black bird descended on out-stretched wings from the canopy.

"You!" The girl said simply, though it was hard to tell if contempt marred her voice.

The bird perched itself upon a low branch and stared silently at the girl.

"You brought this creature here? Your kind knows I am no longer shinigami, take it to the soul realm and be done with it."

The bird did nothing for several moments as the girl watched it, the presence it seemed momentarily forgotten. Then the bird cawed again.

"You know this world is off limits to all but the chosen." To this the bird simply cawed again. "How can you say it is chosen? Surely you're mad!" The bird cawed twice more, this time fluttering it's wings threateningly. The girl then did something quite unexpected— she drew her breath into a great gulp of air, her cheeks protruding in a chipmunk manner and then folded her arms into a glorious pout. The crow cawed louder and hopped about the branch for a moment before the girl finally exhaled with a sigh. "Fine," she said simply.

She turned to the presence once again, "So it seems you're quite the special case, child."

Finally finding a voice, the presence was sure only moments before it didn't have, it said, "What do you mean? Was that bird talking to you?"

The girl nodded, to which the presence wanted to contest that it had indeed heard nothing, but the girl then said, "He tells me that you're in search of your other half."

"My other half? I don't understand! What is this place, who are you, what's going on, and what the hell— bird's don't talk— well they do, but only parrot's and then they say stupid thing's like I'm a pretty bird, and I want a cracker, and Sherry pick up the stupid phone it's for you!"

The angelic looking girl simply blinked in confusion at the presence. It felt as though memories were beginning to return but still they felt disjointed and cloudy; though a sense of self had certainly returned. It felt human again.

"Well I don't know about all of that" the girl said uncertainly. "But I am called Skuld, and you are within the realm of the Well of Urd. This," she said with a gesture to the monolith tree. "is one of the three root's of Yggdrasil, the world tree."

"Yggdrasil," the presence repeated uncertainly. "How can that be '_one_' of it's roots?" The presence asked. "It looks like an entire tree."

"The roots of Yggdrasil exist across three dimensions. Surely you don't believe you can see three dimensions at once? You are merely seeing one aspect of the great tree. But trust that it is but only a single root."

This explanation only served to further confuse the presence, but rather than asking for the young looking girl to explain it in greater detail it instead asked, "Why am I here?"

"You're here because he brought you here," Skuld said with a meaningful glance at the crow, to which the crow hopped about the branch with another flap of his wings and a loud caw.

"Brought— me— here— But... From where? What was that blackness? I can't remember how I got there, only I feel like I was there for an eternity."

"That blackness you describe is the emptiness that exist between the world of the living, and the world of the dead. He found you drifting alone out there, you could have wandered that emptiness forever had he not."

"So am I dead?" the presence asked feeling it's insides knot up at the thought.

"Not dead, but not alive in the context you would understand. It's what makes your case so special, it's why he brought you to me. It's not easily explained, but I shall try."

At this the ethereal girl now called Skuld paused a moment as if unsure how to begin. "In this world many different realities exist…" Her eyes focused on the ground obviously trying to gather her thoughts. "Sometimes these worlds can vary drastically from each other, sometimes they seem essentially the same… The interesting thing however, at least in how it applies to you, is that in some very rare cases something very special or perhaps simply very great is destined to happen. A series of events have been set into motion that are of such consequences that it's impact can be felt as ripples through the other realities."

She paused again, clearly carefully choosing her wording. The presence tried silently to absorb what had been said in hopes that the girl's explanation would soon make sense.

"Sometimes the ripples can leave a lasting impact on a person. Something happens to them that trigger's a unique form of clairvoyance— they see the future of another world."

It still hadn't dawned on the presence where Skuld was taking this information but nevertheless it kept quiet as Skuld slowly, thoughtfully continued. "Sometimes in these rare occasions the bearer of these visions can't rest until they have shared it, many times this leads to writing stories about their visions. Because of this strange phenomenon there are books in existence that are written documents of the future, or many years after they've been written, the past of other worlds…"

Once again Skuld paused. This time the presence felt compelled to interrupt, "That's an amazing story, but I don't understand how that has anything to do with me."

Skuld sighed, "No child… you wouldn't. You must understand— why you are here is not an easy thing to explain, and it will take understanding other things before it will make sense."

The presence nodded.

"Very well then," Skuld continued. "You read one of these books— and due to very complicated and especially rare circumstances your soul was called. I can't pretend to know for how long it was called, but eventually the calling was too much for you to bare and you left your body in search of that who had called you."

This new information was a bit startling. "Left my body? I don't remember ever being called! I don't even know what you mean!"

"Not you exactly— as a soul will lead many lives… The impression of your most current life is still strong with you. A result which is probably largely due to the fact that your soul left your body without properly dying." Skuld sighed in frustration obviously struggling to make the explanation as simple as she could. "While living you would not have heard the call, only your soul on a deeper spiritual level would have heard it. Now that you are nothing but a soul perhaps now you can hear it?"

"I hear nothing!" The presence insisted, but Skuld simply shook her head.

"Within the black you heard it, it was why you were there. Now, since you've remembered yourself. You haven't stopped to listen…" Skuld let her words die on a catch of breeze as it blew through the leaves of the forested clearing. The wind crossed the presence's cheek like a gentle touch and seemed to sing through the trees and undergrowth. "Listen…" Skuld said simply.

And it did.

Listening with all its will the presence cleared its thoughts and tried to concentrate on the calling Skuld spoke of. It listened for many moments, hearing many things within the forest that it was sure only moments before had been silent, from animals to insects, to the rush of water nearby. It was if its senses had peaked and everything within the forest whispered to it. But just as the presence was sure that nothing truly called to it, it felt it. It wasn't words or sound, it was simply a pull— a compulsion to continue moving forward until finally it reached the one whom summoned. It felt as though a rope was attached at its chest and an invisible force was jerking it hard.

The presence cut the feeling off in a panic; the compulsion was overbearing. How had it missed it? How had it silenced it? Even now after trying to lose its focus on the pull it could still feel the slight compelling urge to move. The presence opened its eyes and was startled to realize it was on its feet. It had been sitting only moments before; it didn't remember standing up.

Skuld looked satisfied. "What you are feeling is the other half of your soul."

"The other half?" The presence asked in shock. "What do you mean?"

"It happens only rarely, but sometimes souls will split. I don't know why," Skuld said with a shake of her head, as if to head off any more questions. "This is why you are so special. This is why you are so rare."

The presence must've looked as confused as it really was, because Skuld sighed once again. "Split souls are rare— split souls that become aware of each other in life— rarer still. You read one of those special books as I mentioned. Within it's pages— the pages of a book which tells the future of another world, you found the person who is your other half."

Another breeze whispered through the canopy of the forest this time with a slight chill. "This awakened your two halved souls to each other. And the weaker soul has called for you. That is why you were wandering the black. You were trying to find your other half, but got lost. This is why your friend the crow, saved you."

"But why?" Was all the presence could think to ask, "Why call for me? Why did I have to leave my life behind? I don't understand!"

"I'm told that you're of great importance." The crow ruffled its feather's at another chilly breeze. "I can only speculate, but I imagine that you may have a destiny of great importance as well. It's possible that you may have split yourself in order to avoid that destiny thus leaving a much smaller, weaker half of your soul to take responsibility. When it found you, it must have screamed with all its power for you to have felt it so greatly that you left your body."

The presence didn't know how to respond to this. Was it an accusation? Should it be affronted, or simply take this with the rest of the information Skuld had given. And how much did Skuld really know? She seemed more informed than she let on.

"So I must go to it then?" it asked finally.

"That does seem to be the case, but it complicates matters that you already know so much of what is to happen there."

"I know nothing of what is to happen there," the presence said hotly. "I don't even know where there_ IS_!"

"Have you heard nothing of what I said?" Skuld asked with a snap. "You've read the future of this world! It doesn't matter that you don't know where it is, when you get there, you _WILL_ know what is to happen!"

"So I _AM_ going?" The presence shot back. It was finally reaching the end of its patience. It was sure Skuld knew more than she would say, and it was irksome that answers were intentionally being kept from it. What did she mean, '_I imagine you have a destiny of great importance_, or '_may have split yourself in order to avoid that destiny'_?

"Yes!" Skuld barked, and then suddenly seemed to reclaim her composure. "Yes," she said again this time calmly. "You are going to join with your other half."

The presence paused for a moment before finally asking in a much calmer voice, "Will I still be me?"

"You won't notice a difference because you will be merged. At the most you will have the memories of your other half's life, but it will feel to you as though you simply took over. You will not have taken over however— you will be one.

There will be a condition I'm afraid. Nothing you have a choice in, just a fair warning. You will be physically unable to tell anyone of the future. Try as you like to change it if you must, but you will not be able to explain it to anyone."

The presence wanted to immediately interject but Skuld held up her hand for silence. "I'm sorry, as I've said these circumstances are special. I'm not aware of anything like them having ever happened. I could ask Urd, but that's not my point," She said with a quick shake of her head. "These conditions are the least I can manage. It's simply not possible to allow you to have that much power over events. Its pushing things to simply allow you the freedom to do as you please and not necessarily follow the path already ordained by fate— or to try anyhow. You will find that some things are simply unchangeable."

The crow, temporarily forgotten by the presence, let out a loud caw. "Yes I know, now buzz off buzzard!" The crow extended its wings out and waved them with yet another loud caw. "Fine, fine! If that's what you want then so be it!

He will be going with you," Skuld said flatly.

The presence looked at the solid black crow. The bird was staring at it. "Can I ask one more thing?" It asked not taking its eyes from the winged beast.

"What is it?" the girl questioned. It was hard to tell by her tone if she was growing impatient or not.

"How did he find me? What is he? He looks like an ordinary crow."

"He is an ordinary crow, (stupid buzzard) the problem your having is that you are unaware that crow's are not ordinary."

The presence's eyes shifted back to Skuld in anticipation of her meaning.

"Crows are harvester's of souls. Long before the Shinigami collected souls to help them cross to the other side, crows would collect the spirits of the dead and guide them through the blackness. They are still the most able guides through the nothingness of the black, for only they venture freely there with no fear of losing themselves. It is most likely how he found you. For no shinigami would be wandering through the black without extreme reason. It is dangerous even to them."

"You keep using that word, shinigami— what is a shinigami?"

"Shinigami are the reaper's of souls. They guide the souls of the dead through the Black to the soul realm where souls can finally rest. After the soul has been purified it will return to the mortal world in a new life.

"So you are shinigami?" the presence asked.

"Once, long ago… I was of the highest order of shinigami. A collector of warriors souls—einheri— souls to fight in Ragnarok. We were known as Valkyrie. But I've long since retired from that and tend to this world with my sisters."

A million more questions flooded the Presence's mind. With the explanation of who and what it was out of the way it was suddenly very interested in the world it was in and the workings of the spirit world. But before it could ask anything more Skuld said, "You must leave now, I have told you what you need to know, and so it is time."

"How will I get there?" The presence asked.

"The same way you got here," Skuld said with a nod to the crow. "He will lead you."

"How will he do that, I don't even remember him in the black."

"He gave you wings, little one!"

The presence looked over its shoulder sharply and for the first time noticed with a gasp, the large inky black wings that folded at its back.

"Silly child," Skuld chuckled. "Hadn't you noticed?"

The presence felt as though its heart were racing. It had not noticed the now obvious set of wings! The crow let out a loud caw and lifted itself off the tree with a great jump, it's feathers drifting down about the presence like black snow. Everything became dizzy, and then… nothing…

--------------------------------

Hermione Granger awoke with a gasp.


End file.
